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The sharing of location data is important to anyone with a GPS in their phone. This is a broad population. We performed contextual inquiry to learn more about how people use existing systems, and what features they might like to see in a location-sharing app. In particular, we inquired about social and commercial uses of location-data sharing. We interviewed people who represented less-savvy/non-users, medium-savvy users, and very-savvy users of location data sharing services.
Less-savvy:
This user is a middle-aged iPhone owner who does not currently use voluntary location sharing. She believes her location data is being used by a variety of applications, but isn’t sure which ones or what it’s used for.
Lessons Learned:
Suggestions given by the subject:
1. Sharing location with friends and family when traveling is attractive
2. Sharing semi-private location information with companies is attractive when
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3. Receiving custom-tailored offers is attractive.
- example example: Amazon recommending books based on previous purchases.
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- example: Has my friend returned from vacation yet?
Medium-savvy:
This user is a 27 year-old, married, software engineer. He has used most of the location-based apps on a fairly regular basis (around once a week) because of his interest in receiving offers for goods that are of interest to him. For example, he uses Foursquare to get frequent flyer miles at airports and Subway discounts. He also likes to know where his family members are present. He uses social networks on a regular basis but prefers not to be overloaded with information and thus controls his settings with care.
Lessons Learned:
Things not being done properly by the existing systems:
1. They do not allow him to share information with a specific group of users. Therefore, his notifications about being at a particular location are currently propagated to everyone.
2. He finds the generic ads sent to him cumbersome. For example, he mentioned that Groupon often sends him irrelevant ads which are irritating.
3. Privacy is a big concern and he is concerned that that the applications do not disclose what types of information are being sent to third parties.
Suggestions given by the subject:
1. Would prefer to have a service that automatically prompts about sharing information when he’s a new location but notifies him and asks for his approval.
2. He would like an app that would automatically learn from his behaviour without him having to tell it what it should do at each stage.
Very-savvy:
This user, who we’ll call Joe, is a 26-year old student who uses location-based services like facebook check-in almost every day. He is also using other involuntary location services. He likes sharing his location information with his friends because it is a useful way to convey his personality and interests to other people. However, he is sometimes hesitant to publish his location for fear that people might know too much about him. Joe is also interested in sharing his location information in exchange for discount offers from stores.
Lessons Learned:
Things not being done properly by the existing systems:
1. He finds that general location-based ads (ex: Groupon) are annoying since they provide the offers that he doesn’t want. He finds that it would be useful to receive personalized discounts based on his habits or context.
2. He does not know how much information he has made available to others.
3. He wants to share his location information only with certain groups. For example, he mentioned that he does not want his mother to know his whereabouts.
Suggestions given by the subject:
1. Would be interested to know the available offers from stores such that he can make the most out of his location information.
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(1) Initiate Location Sharing Relationship * define
- Define people to share with
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- Define type of aggregate/derivative data to share
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- (2) View notifications about friends’ locations
(3) Opt-in to offers from companies/organizations/retailers
(4) View/edit your existing relationships
Detail:
(Goal, precondition, location, frequency of use, how learned, possible errors, time constraints, who else involved)
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